Within two years, land allottees were also required to develop their given areas
At a news conference in Abuja on Friday, Lere Olayinka, the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the FCT Minister, revealed that 8,287 out of 261,914 Area Council land documents submitted for regularization between 2006 and 2023 were screened by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).
The 261,914 documents submitted for screening and regularization constituted just 3.2% of the total, according to Olayinka, while 8,287 land records were reviewed.
The number of submissions remaining in the database of the FCT Administration is 253,627. The move was in line with the recent approval by FCT Minister Nyesom Wike of extensive changes to the administration of land in the state.
According to Olayinka, the changes will take effect on April 21 and address certain matters, such as the requirements for obtaining a statutory Right of Occupancy (R of O) and the details included in the R of O law.
The contents of the Letter of Acceptance/Refusal of offer of grant of R of O, titling of mass housing and sectional interests, and the regularization of area council land papers are among the others.
The core of the far-reaching changes to the FCT land administration would be to guarantee that area councils’ land allocations are regularized and that purchasers have legal ownership to properties used for mass housing. Within two years, land allottees were also required to develop their given areas.
Olayinka clarified that the move was legal because the FCT constitution designated all land inside its borders as urban land.
He said, “It, therefore, becomes necessary that all land documents issued by the area councils are considered for regularisation to statutory titles in line with relevant statutes.”